They say you cannot win a two-legged tie after just 90 minutes but Sheffield United took a giant step towards the Wembley playoff final showpiece after surging towards a 3-0 victory over 10-man Bristol City. For the Blades, who had an early goal questionably chalked off, their task was made considerably easier after the City defender Rob Dickie was sent off on the verge of half-time, allowing Harrison Burrows to strike from the penalty spot and give Chris Wilder’s side a leg-up. In the second half the substitutes Andre Brooks and Callum O’Hare sealed victory.
This time the billowing red smoke on the pitch came from the delirious United away end, where the injured homegrown Blades midfielder Ollie Arblaster was among those enjoying themselves. For all of the talk of the gulf between these teams, the 22 points which separated third-placed United and sixth-placed City in the regular season, ultimately the sending-off transformed this match. Now City’s only hopes of reaching the final hinge on an unthinkable – and sizeable – victory on Monday.
The rosy picture did not stop Wilder from deliberately dousing his team’s celebrations, pushing his players towards the dressing rooms amid the full-time joy. “I’ve been in the game far too long where, even now, when everyone is thinking it’s job done, it’s not,” he said. “They will come to Bramall Lane, everyone will be writing them off, and that’s a dangerous place to be, so we won’t shortcut it in any way.”
These games are always characterised by memorable moments. For Bristol City, it has been 17 years of mostly hurt and mild indifference since David Noble scored a stoppage-time screamer at Selhurst Park to give the club a semi-final first-leg advantage over Crystal Palace. Then came Wembley, where City were defeated by Hull, Dean Windass’s volley one of those sore snapshots that sticks in the memory.
United arrived into this tie with a wretched record, too, having failed to prevail in any of their previous nine playoff campaigns. Wilder was on the books of the Blades when their hoodoo began in a relegation playoff defeat against City in 1987-88. “I don’t think half of our players were born,” Wilder said, smiling.
So both teams knew what they had signed up for. United saw an early goal dubiously disallowed for offside against Sydie Peck, after Tyrese Campbell thought he had opened the scoring having latched on to Kieffer Moore’s flick from the captain Jack Robinson’s long throw. United’s players had begun celebrating in their numbers when the assistant referee raised his flag on the far side. One away supporter was ejected for letting off a flare, his evening in the West Country over inside a dozen minutes. City responded, Joe Williams sending a first-time rocket against the crossbar, the purest of strikes after good work by Anis Mehmeti.
United had a couple more chances before taking the lead from the spot approaching the interval, Campbell and Moore both fluffing their lines.
United belatedly led in stoppage time, the referee, Oliver Langford, pointing to the spot after Dickie clumsily upended Moore in the box. Worse still for City, Dickie was given a straight red card, Langford adamant the defender did not attempt to play the ball. Moore read the bouncing ball from Campbell’s header and it spelt trouble when he charged between Zak Vyner and Dickie and through on goal. “The decision changed everything,” Liam Manning said. “It’s a disgrace – we raised our concerns about the referee this week. We just felt it was too big a game [for him].”
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Suddenly this game had a totally different complexion. Manning recognised as much, making a double change at the interval, introducing Haydon Roberts and Sinclair Armstrong. City inevitably struggled to work the United goalkeeper Michael Cooper, a shrewd £2.5m buy from Plymouth, until Mehmeti sent an effort goalwards with 15 minutes of regular time to play. By then Brooks had done a backflip after doubling United’s lead, spying O’Hare’s clever dummy to convert Burrows’s low cross at the back post, and then O’Hare completed the scoring, flicking in from the substitute Tom Davies’s knockdown.
City will look to United’s cross-city rivals for inspiration for a miraculous comeback. Two years ago Wednesday overcame a 4-0 first-leg deficit at Hillsborough to beat Peterborough on penalties en route to promotion via Wembley. “I feel for everybody associated with the club,” Manning said. “The lads are gutted. What I do know about them is we’ll keep believing and fighting until the final whistle on Monday.”
Source: theguardian.com
